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Psalm 105

1 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;make known among the nations what he has done.2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;tell of all his wonderful acts.3 Glory in his holy name;let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.4 Look to the Lord and his strength;seek his face always.

5 Remember the wonders he has done,his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,6 you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.7 He is the Lord our God;his judgments are in all the earth.

8 He remembers his covenant forever,the promise he made, for a thousand generations,9 the covenant he made with Abraham,the oath he swore to Isaac.10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,to Israel as an everlasting covenant:11 “To you I will give the land of Canaanas the portion you will inherit.”

12 When they were but few in number,few indeed, and strangers in it,13 they wandered from nation to nation,from one kingdom to another.14 He allowed no one to oppress them;for their sake he rebuked kings:15 “Do not touch my anointed ones;do my prophets no harm.”

16 He called down famine on the landand destroyed all their supplies of food;17 and he sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave.18 They bruised his feet with shackles,his neck was put in irons,19 till what he foretold came to pass,till the word of the Lord proved him true.20 The king sent and released him,the ruler of peoples set him free.21 He made him master of his household,ruler over all he possessed,22 to instruct his princes as he pleasedand teach his elders wisdom.

23 Then Israel entered Egypt;Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.24 The Lord made his people very fruitful;he made them too numerous for their foes,25 whose hearts he turned to hate his people,to conspire against his servants.26 He sent Moses his servant,and Aaron, whom he had chosen.27 They performed his signs among them,his wonders in the land of Ham.28 He sent darkness and made the land dark—for had they not rebelled against his words?29 He turned their waters into blood,causing their fish to die.30 Their land teemed with frogs,which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers.31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,and gnats throughout their country.32 He turned their rain into hail,with lightning throughout their land;33 he struck down their vines and fig treesand shattered the trees of their country.34 He spoke, and the locusts came,grasshoppers without number;35 they ate up every green thing in their land,ate up the produce of their soil.36 Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,the firstfruits of all their manhood.37 He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold,and from among their tribes no one faltered.38 Egypt was glad when they left,because dread of Israel had fallen on them.

39 He spread out a cloud as a covering,and a fire to give light at night.40 They asked, and he brought them quail;he fed them well with the bread of heaven.41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;it flowed like a river in the desert.

42 For he remembered his holy promisegiven to his servant Abraham.43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,his chosen ones with shouts of joy;44 he gave them the lands of the nations,and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—45 that they might keep his preceptsand observe his laws.

Psalm 106

2 Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lordor fully declare his praise?3 Blessed are those who act justly,who always do what is right.

4 Remember me,Lord, when you show favor to your people,come to my aid when you save them,5 that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones,that I may share in the joy of your nationand join your inheritance in giving praise.

6 We have sinned, even as our ancestors did;we have done wrong and acted wickedly.7 When our ancestors were in Egypt,they gave no thought to your miracles;they did not remember your many kindnesses,and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.[c]8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,to make his mighty power known.9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;he led them through the depths as through a desert.10 He saved them from the hand of the foe;from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them.11 The waters covered their adversaries;not one of them survived.12 Then they believed his promisesand sang his praise.

13 But they soon forgot what he had doneand did not wait for his plan to unfold.14 In the desert they gave in to their craving;in the wilderness they put God to the test.15 So he gave them what they asked for,but sent a wasting disease among them.

16 In the camp they grew envious of Mosesand of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;it buried the company of Abiram.18 Fire blazed among their followers;a flame consumed the wicked.19 At Horeb they made a calfand worshiped an idol cast from metal.20 They exchanged their glorious Godfor an image of a bull, which eats grass.21 They forgot the God who saved them,who had done great things in Egypt,22 miracles in the land of Hamand awesome deeds by the Red Sea.23 So he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one,stood in the breach before himto keep his wrath from destroying them.

24 Then they despised the pleasant land;they did not believe his promise.25 They grumbled in their tentsand did not obey the Lord.26 So he swore to them with uplifted handthat he would make them fall in the wilderness,27 make their descendants fall among the nationsand scatter them throughout the lands.

28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peorand ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;29 they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds,and a plague broke out among them.30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,and the plague was checked.31 This was credited to him as righteousnessfor endless generations to come.32 By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,and trouble came to Moses because of them;33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God,and rash words came from Moses’ lips.[d]

34 They did not destroy the peoplesas the Lord had commanded them,35 but they mingled with the nationsand adopted their customs.36 They worshiped their idols,which became a snare to them.37 They sacrificed their sonsand their daughters to false gods.38 They shed innocent blood,the blood of their sons and daughters,whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,and the land was desecrated by their blood.39 They defiled themselves by what they did;by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

40 Therefore the Lord was angry with his peopleand abhorred his inheritance.41 He gave them into the hands of the nations,and their foes ruled over them.42 Their enemies oppressed themand subjected them to their power.43 Many times he delivered them,but they were bent on rebellionand they wasted away in their sin.44 Yet he took note of their distresswhen he heard their cry;45 for their sake he remembered his covenantand out of his great love he relented.46 He caused all who held them captiveto show them mercy.

47 Save us,Lord our God,and gather us from the nations,that we may give thanks to your holy nameand glory in your praise.

48 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,from everlasting to everlasting.

The Church and Its Leaders

3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”[a];20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”[b]21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours,22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas[c] or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.